


Koi in a Lake in Wintertime

by honeyedlion



Category: Sarai-ya Goyou | House of Five Leaves
Genre: Developing Relationship, Kissing, M/M, Seasons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-22
Updated: 2013-11-22
Packaged: 2018-01-02 08:59:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1054908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/honeyedlion/pseuds/honeyedlion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A year to thaw.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Koi in a Lake in Wintertime

The first time they kiss, they are in public. Most of the kiss is lost, due to Masanosuke pulling hastily back, and Yaichi smirking against his lips. Though they are well hidden in an alleyway, Masanosuke can still feel blood staining his cheeks, and ringing in his ears. Yaichi’s mouth is amused, eyes sly and smooth, reflective like a glass bowl, showing nothing of himself.  
  
Masanosuke thinks he can see the reflections of himself and his shock in those eyes. And he can read the pretty put-down of his lips. ‘Coward’ that smirk seemed to say, even though he knows it is something Yaichi-dono would never say to him.

Their next kiss is seconds after the first. Yaichi is crowded hastily into the wall, and Masa can feel his stomach clenching, and his hands shaking where he is holding Yaichi, but he is doing this, he is taking this for himself, he’s really kissing him, and-

High above them, newly green spring trees shake branches at the sky, a soft wind pulling at the tips of sun-lightened leaves.  
  
:  
  
Most nights Masanosuke goes to visit his room. He enters with a quiet knock, eyes on the floor. They drink strong tea, while Yaichi-dono smokes and talks about things Masa does not understand, but make him think. The room is softly lit, and warm, and Yaichi reclines elegantly, leg showing up to the thigh, pale white, and soft looking in the night. Masa drinks more tea.  
  
Yaichi-dono, he used to think, was like water reflecting, clear and shallow like a mirror or polished metal, but now he knows those eyes are as deceiving as the metal of Yaichi’s blade.

Near the house Masanosuke grew up was a huge lake, which froze over every winter. As a young boy, he was amazed to learn that under that immense frozen surface, life existed, an entire world in darkness waiting to wake in the spring, after winter has passed.  
  
He doesn’t tell Yaichi-dono about this lake. He waits until that mouth, that most telling part of him is languid, and wet from sucking smoke through a pipe.

And some nights, they will tumble onto Yaichi’s bed roll, and Masa’s hands do not fumble here, big though they are, and the next morning the girls will chatter teasingly about who was so loud last night. Yaichi will smile winningly at Madame, from where he is framed at the window, and Madame will glare at Masanosuke, who will look at no one, only eat his breakfast quickly and excuse himself as politely as he can. And even though he is nervous, his cheeks are red with happiness.

Other nights, before he even gets to the door, Masa hears him, his voice mingling in the warm summer air with girls, the sound soft and sweet, and he stumbles back to his own room. On these nights, even his legs feel tired.  
  
:  
  
Yaichi comes to him once. It is late, and the sound of the wooden door sliding along the floor has Masa reaching for his sword before he is even awake. Before he can strike, a heavy weight is straddling him, pressing thin lips and a smoky mouth to his.

He breathes deep when he is released, and in only the moonlight Yaichi’s eyes gleam like glass, like a blade, like still water.  
  
Yaichi’s hands are pulling the warmth of his bedding apart, and when he tries to touch him, Yaichi pushes him back down. His hand falls away from the sword reluctantly, and Masanosuke cries out.  
  
The ceiling of his room is simple slatted wood, turned into shadow, but from this angle he can see the high set window, pouring cold light in on them. It is only fall, but already the nights have a sharp chill, and Masanosuke worries about his sister up north, alone, and then his eyes slide shut, breath coming out on a gasp.

He can feel a small tremble in Yaichi’s thighs as he rises up and down, but when Masa reaches out to steady him, he is again pushed away, this time more roughly.

Sometimes, Masanosuke feels like one of those fish trapped beneath the ice on the lake, swimming deep in the dark, never able to break the surface. It is still only fall. Frost rims the lake, and when Masanosuke wakes up the next morning, Yaichi is gone.  
  
:  
  
When they next kiss, the snow was cold around his feet, and Masa was blocking all the sun from his face. His back was against hard stone, and his own mouth tasted too sweet from the food brought to him.  
  
Masanosuke was kneeling in front of him, and still seemed impossibly tall, and his eyes, open to watch him while they kissed were the warmest black. Yaichi is not taking this food because he is hungry and anything will do. Yaichi cradles Masa’s head in his hands, and kisses him, because right now, he is starving.  
  
It is winter, and people walk wrapped in layers against the cold wind, but Masa is watching a lake shine in spring, and koi leaping from the water.

**Author's Note:**

> Bed down until [spring](http://honeyedlion.tumblr.com/). Or submit a request.


End file.
